Early Care & Learning Council

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Take Action on Sequestration

As you know, federal sequestration that went into effect March 1, 2013 will have an effect on child care in New York State that is yet to be determined.

At this time we know that approximately $5 million will be reduced from the NYS Office of Children and Family Services discretionary portion of the CCDF grant, but exactly which programs will be cut and to what extent are still unknown.

If any money is to be restored our federal Representatives and Senators really have the power at this moment, as proven by the legislation to ease the air-traffic delays that sailed through both houses of Congress late last week.

Find your member of Congress and contact information for our U.S. Senators here: http://www.contactingthecongress.org/

In addition, advocacy to state representatives should still be ongoing. State representatives can discuss the issue with all departments of government.

Thank you for your attention to this issue and please let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Jessica

Jessica Klos Shapiro

Senior Policy Associate

(518) 690-4217 ex. 32

Monday, April 29, 2013

Recently, President Obama released his 2014 budget proposal. This budget includes historic investments across several early childhood programs including increased investment in a comprehensive birth-to-five early education continuum built upon child care, home visiting, Head Start, Early Head Start, and preschool – all critical programs for children, especially the most vulnerable children.

From the National Women’s Law Center and CLASP:

The President's plan does three incredibly important things: It expands voluntary home visiting programs that support and educate parents, increases availability of high-quality child care for infants and toddlers, and gives all children in low- and moderate-income families access to high-quality prekindergarten programs. Click here to send a letter to President Obama

To show our thanks for this ambitious initiative, we need to gather as many letters as possible. After you send yours, please show your support one more way — by forwarding this email to any networks that you're a part of. If you are a parent or work with children, handwritten thank-you artwork would be a great addition! All notes and artwork must be received by NWLC (11 Dupont Circle, NW, #800, Washington, DC 20036) by May 2. If you have any questions, please email the National Women’s Law Center at info@nwlc.org.

Families Need Child Care. Ask our Senators to Sign Senator Franken's CCDBG Letter Today

Child Care Aware® of America
Throughout the country, child care is hard to find, harder to afford, and too often, it is of questionable quality. Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) wants to help. He is collecting signatures from members of the United States Senate on a letter to be sent to Appropriations Committee members urging an increase of nearly $1 billion in funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG). Urge our Senators today to sign onto the letter. The deadline for signing is COB, Today, Thursday, April 25.

Social Services Block Grants Supplemental Funds Available

HHS has released $474.5 million to help five states, including New York, recover from Hurricane Sandy. All funds will be awarded no later than September 30, 2013 and must be used by September 30, 2015. New York State's allocation is $235,434,600. To read more about ACF's efforts to help people recover from Hurricane Sandy click here. For more information about SSBG, click here.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Sincerely,

Jessica

Jessica Klos Shapiro

Senior Policy Associate

(518) 690-4217 ex. 32

Monday, April 1, 2013

NYS Passes $135.1 billion budget

3/29/13

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, Senate Majority Coalition Co-Leaders Dean Skelos and Jeff Klein, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver today announced early passage of the 2013-14 Budget.

The Budget closes a $1.3 billion gap with no new taxes or fees.

Total State Operating Budget: $90.2 billion
Total All Funds Budget, excluding Sandy and the Affordable Care Act: $135.1 billion

The Enacted Budget continues the state's focus on economic growth through a series of initiatives to create jobs and grow the economy including new tax cuts for small businesses, tax cuts for middle class families, major education reforms and investments, and an increase in the minimum wage to $9 per hour. The Budget passed both houses of the Legislature days before the April 1 deadline, marking the first time New York has had three consecutive, on-time budgets since 1984, and the earliest budget since 1983.

Early Care and Learning Budget Victories include:

$7.265 million earmarked for facilitated enrollment : $1.147 for Monroe; $2.767 million for Oneida and $3.442 million for NYC, funded from TANF transfer dollars.

Right now the total appropriated for child care stands at $910,510,924 which is $3 million more than last year, and $9 million more than was in the Governor’s proposed budget. This does not reflect Flexible Fund for Family Services transfers made by the counties (they usually have until June to make these transfers). If FFFS transfers equal the $6 million made last year, New York’s children will be $3 million ahead of last year and $9 million ahead of the Governor’s proposed budget.

Pre-kindergarten Program Expansion: Recognizing that quality early education is critical for long-term success and that children who attend full-day pre-k often outperform their peers, the Budget provides a $25 million additional investment for pre-kindergarten with an emphasis on high quality, full-day pre-k. Funding is targeted toward higher need students in lower wealth school districts via a competitive process.

Thank you to everyone for their advocacy efforts throughout the budget season and keep up the great work!

Sincerely,

Jessica

Jessica Klos Shapiro

Senior Policy Associate

(518) 690-4217 ex. 32